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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Love Found Me: A Guest Post by Tim Gallen

From Denise: The "Love Found Me" series continues with a post from my friend, Tim Gallen. I had the opportunity to connect with Tim for the first time last year and have gotten to know him through an online writing community. He is a talented writer, especially where fiction is concerned, and I'm honored to have him as my guest this week!

When I was born, I spent my first few
days of life in intensive care. As my parents always tell it, something was
wrong, but after several days they never figured out what it was.

Nearly 30 years later - and despite
what others might consider to be off about me - I’m confident the condition
that went undiagnosed was a misplaced heart.

You see, my heart’s never really been
under my left breast. Rather, I entered the world with my heart on my sleeve.

No wonder I’m a lifelong hopeless
romantic.

Until I met her, I dwelled a goodly
amount of time on finding the love of my life.

But the thing is, the harder I tried
the farther I got from finding love. Not that I tried that hard, mind you. I
was no smooth operator when it came to the ladies. I am shy, odd, nerdy, and
not always good at small talk. But I tried, with limited success.

But it wasn’t until I essentially
gave up looking that the woman I had been hoping for fell into my lap. Or, more
accurately, my inbox.

Love found me surfing the Internet. And I've never been happier.

Have you ever seen one of those
eHarmony commercials where the man and woman take turns talking about the
other? That could be the story of my life. My wife and I met on eHarmony.

We connected over my passion for
dental hygiene.

One of the questions on eHarmony’s
profile asks to name three things you are passionate about. Honestly, I don’t
remember the first two, other than that they were serious things. But for the
third one, I wrote that I was passionate about brushing my teeth.

When my wife and I first connected
via the dating site, she mentioned that answer had made her laugh.

I've been making her laugh ever
since.

This may sound horrible of me, but I
don’t recall what specific item from Nicole’s profile or answers entangled me.
I think it was more a combination of everything. She entangled me with
everything that is her - her passion, love, character, beauty, and faith. Since
our first connection, I have found it easy to be myself with her.

Isn't that what love is all about? We
spend inordinate amounts of energy to reflect an aura of perfection. We do our
best to ensure the world only sees our best face.

But love strips away all the
pretentious masks we insist on wearing. Love leaves us naked and vulnerable.
Yet, instead of scorn or disdain, love sees us for all we are and embraces and
cherishes us anyway.

I am not perfect. Like everyone else,
I have flaws and foibles. I make mistakes. But my wife loves me anyway.

Love found me online. And I am so
grateful.How did love find you? Share your story in the comments!

Tim Gallen is a writer on a journey
of recovery, rediscovery and irreverence. Follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook. He blogs, though not quite daily, at
the daily gallen.

11 comments:

I also met my husband online. Although it was an accident. There was a website called College Club, like My Space for college students, and he posted on a forum there about the next big fighter in hockey. In the description he said something like, "If you're just going to say that fighting shouldn't be in hockey, put on your skirt and leave." I called him out on it and we became great friends. We emailed each other every day for like 3 years before we started dating. We met each other in person for the first time a few weeks after we started dating.

that's awesome, andrea! in my introverted way, i've always found it easier to connect initially with people online. by the time my wife and i first met in person we already knew each other on a deeper level, which made it much more memorable and a lot less awkward. :-)

I met my husband online too! We met on ChristianMingle.com, though at the time it was called Relationships.com. I got this message on MySpace from a christian group I was in about joining a christian dating site. At the time, I hated men. :P But I joined anyway to prove that dating sites didn't work. I met my fair-share of odd and interesting people on there, and just as I was about to deactivate my account, I got a message from this guy in Michigan named Stephen. He was really cute and sweet, and before I know it we're messaging on MySpace and email.Turns out, Stephen got that exact same message from that MySpace christian group to join that dating site. And like me, he was about to give up his account, until he decided to search a 1000 mile radius of where he lived. And he found me, who lived 983 miles away in Rapid City, South Dakota. Three months after we met online, and after a long awaited permission from my dad, I flew up to the U.P. of Michigan to meet this guy. And the rest, you could say, is history.

that's awesome, kelsey! my wife and i were long distance, too. i was in phoenix and she was in elkhart, indiana. and, like you, she took the trip out here to meet me a few months after we were matched. two years later, we were married.